Health and Human Services replacement levy on Cuyahoga County ballot

Cuyahoga County Health and Human Services will have a replacement levy on the November ballot to continue several services and programs for many people of the county.
The current four-year levy is 2.9 mills, and costs taxpayers $88.82 per $100,000 of property valuation per year, yielding $75.5 million annually, said Joe Nanni, chief of staff for county council.
This levy was passed in May 2010, with 151,171 people for and 76,358 against, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
The new replacement levy would be for five years, and would be a l.0 mill increase for a total of 3.9 mills.
If passed, the new levy will cost taxpayers $136.50 per $100,000 of property valuation per year, and would yield $107.8 million annually, Nanni said.
This is an increase of $47.68 per $100,000 of property valuation per year for taxpayers and will bring in an additional $32.3 million from the current levy annually.
Nanni said “the increase per year for taxpayers includes the almost $13 the state would have paid, but because of the change in the roll back, the state no longer pays 12.5 percent.”
The levy, also known as Issue 1, will continue to support programs and offer services for children, seniors, families and others who might be in critical need.
Campaign representatives said this levy was going to be a renewal in 2014, but because of cuts in federal and state funding and declining property value, the replacement levy will be on the ballot early to help protect programs
that affect hundreds of thousands of families in the county.
Some of the programs that are currently supported by the previous levy and will continue if it is passed include Metro Life Flight, intensive care units for newborns, Level One Trauma and Burn Center at MetroHealth; programs that protect children from abuse and neglect; emergency shelters for the homeless; home health care and food delivery; drug and alcohol treatment programs; poison control and suicide prevention hotlines; and mental illness counseling.
If the levy does not pass, there will be cuts to the services and programs offered.
All of the funds from the levy are used toward the operating budget of the Health and Human Services department of Cuyahoga County.